Just a Minute Devotional #12
Justice, Mercy, Faith
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. (Matthew 23:23, ESV)
Jesus dishes out some woes to the scribes and Pharisees. Unfortunately, we are included.
Christians have hypocritical and fraudulent potential.
We often prioritize our outside appearance. We hide behind our gold cross necklaces, our measured words, our condescending platitudes, our fake Christian smiles, and our giant Bibles. We never show others our unresolved sins of bigotry, judgmentalism, idolatry, and greed. God sees our hearts and knows what we lack. It may be justice, mercy, and faith.
Do you feel like you are spinning your wheels by grounding yourself in a checklist of rules? Is love taking a back seat? Do you feel like something is amiss?
Christ’s law of grace is not a set of rules but a law of love that forgives and transforms. Turn to Him to help get off the spinning wheel.
Only Christ’s love can reconstruct our woeful hearts into blessed ones.
Prayer:
Forgive me, Father, for all my sins. Recreate in me a heart of justice, mercy, and faith. Amen
